County sales tax collections on target despite COVID-19
Catoosa County government didn’t see a significant decline in sales tax collections during April, the county’s chief financial officers told commissioners.
That’s good news to their ears because during April many retailers, restaurants and other businesses curtailed their operations or closed their doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sales taxes collected during one month are sent to the county by the state at the end of the following month, Carol Roberts told the county Board of Commissioners at its June 2 meeting.
At the end of May the county received $674,155 in LOST (Local Option Sales Tax) collections made in April, Roberts said.
“That is just barely less than prior month, just $484 less than prior month,” Roberts said. “And it’s a little over $2,000 more than prior year. So it’s still tracking well.”
Collection of SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) went equally well.
SPLOST receipts countywide for April totaled $962,312, Roberts said. That figure is slightly more than the prior month and slightly more — about $3,100 — than the prior year. She said receipts, to date, for the 2019 SPLOST total $9,633,283 for 10 months of collecting. “So we are tracking at 96.33 percent of what our assumptions were, which would be to get $1 million a month,” she said.
“April was one of the months we were shut completely down,” commission chairman Steven Henry pointed out, “so we actually come out pretty strong.”
“We just hope that it’s all good news from here,” Roberts replied.
Don Stilwell is editor for The Catoosa County News in Ringgold, and the Walker County Messenger in Lafayette.